Pg Art Gallery is pleased to host the group exhibition “The Dream of Shells That Never Were”, on view from July 7 to August 20, focusing on one of nature’s most delicate and fragile forms: seashells.
The artworks in this exhibition are inspired by the 6,000-piece seashell collection that Hasan Güleşçi meticulously assembled over the years and donated to the Bodrum Maritime Museum in 2019.
Centering on the formal and conceptual possibilities of seashells, “The Dream of Shells That Never Were” brings together artists from various disciplines, exploring their relationships with nature, memory, and transformation. The exhibition invites viewers to discover the subtle connections between the aesthetic language of nature and the human inner world, through the metaphor of the shell. The shell is approached at times as a shelter, at times as a remnant, or as a trace. Through diverse materials and individual artistic practices, the works offer a rethinking of nature’s formal sensitivity through the potential of technology. While expanding this multilayered space of meaning, the exhibition also offers a multifaceted experience through the variety of materials and techniques used.
Some works employ artificial intelligence technologies to simulate imaginary forms of shells that never existed, establishing a dialogue between the rigidity of form and the fluidity of memory. Others transform traces of time hidden in nature into bodily narratives through materials like glass, wool, or sand. This visual language—where the organic and the synthetic, the past and the future, the fragile and the resilient intertwine—reveals the artists’ approach to nature not merely as a subject of representation but as a way of thinking.
The spiral structure of the shell evokes the life cycle; its inward-curving surface suggests protection, its glossy texture invites memory and storytelling. Plants, corals, oysters, and the very shape of water—each acquires new meaning through the unique approaches of the participating artists. In the paintings, time is suspended; spaces, imbued with a sense of semi-abandonment, call on the viewer to pause, observe, and remember.
“The Dream of Shells That Never Were” is not only a meeting of nature’s delicate structures with human fragility, but also a contemporary reflection on the dialogue between material, form, and thought in today’s art practice. Each work speaks its own language within this dialogue—posing the same essential questions through different paths: What is memory? What does it mean to be protected? How real, and how imagined, is our connection to nature?
Rather than offering clear answers, the exhibition opens a space for contemplation—prompting viewers to search for their own responses. It brings us into renewed contact with time, the body, nature, and ourselves.
